Snooker + High Speed = Shoot-out

21:15:00
Ramona Dragomir
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Shoot those snooker balls!

Things are getting very "speedy" for snooker, because after the Power Snooker launch last month, the time has come to bring yet another twisted tournament to the eyes of the public. Its name? "Shoot-out" ! A very expressive and meaningful name for a snooker event that will have a ticking clock and limited time to carry on with a frame.

Basically, the best 64 snooker players in the world will try to do their best in an one-frame knockout event which runs from January 28 to 30, next year at the Circus Arena from Backpool, UK. But things are getting even more twisted, as a frame will have a maximum duration of 10 minutes with a 20-seconds shot clock in the first five minutes and 15-seconds for the last five. Now, how about that? :-)) And I thought Power Snooker was "fast and furious" :-))))) Boy, was I wrong or what? :-P

This visionary, this Jean Luc-Picard of snooker- Barry Hearn is the one who came up with the idea, an idea that will probably be seen not too good by the purists, but like a breath of fresh air by the those who embrace change.In an interview gave to the BBC back in May, when this idea was made public, Hearn said: “It will be snooker at full throttle. It will test players to the limits of what they can do under pressure. They will have to make quick decisions and show their natural ability and plenty of bottle - with the chance to double their money for every game they win."

Hearn also added that the atmosphere will be "lively". Now, I hope that doesn’t mean "Power Snooker lively", for I was really bothered by the rudeness of the people who got drunk and started to sing and shout like they were at a football match. A more relaxed atmosphere is very ok by me for it brings together the players and the public like a whole, but let’s not exaggerate and bring too much noise into snooker, for it’s such a fragile segment which needs attention and care.Now, on the other hand I did enjoy very much the atmosphere from this year’s World Championship re-match...you know the one between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor. That was awesome! The players were speaking with the public, the public was responding respectfully...that was superb! Don’t you think? :-)

New sheriff in town - new tournaments

There were a lot of skeptical people when Power Snooker was introduced to them and I think that many of them will also be skeptical about this Snoot-out event. But I think we should give it a chance. It’s nice and fun, it captures the people imagination and it’s... crazy! :-))) No one is trying to replace classic snooker or to make it less interesting. "The 6-reds", "The Power Snooker", "The Shoot-out" tournaments, are just being placed in the schedule only to see how the players do under pressure. How they react, if they enjoy it...if the public enjoys it. Someone was telling me that one can’t obtain performance with only 6 or 9 reds on the table. Not to be rude, but what’s that got to do with it? Performance is performance!

The "Shoot-out" tournament will be broadcasted by SkySports, being the second great snooker event covered by this television, beside the Premier League and the draw for each round will be random. Oh, and one more “unimportant” detail: the winner will go home with £32,000!!! :-)

Below, you’ll find the draw for the first round, so you can imagine how this event will start ;-)